My cockpit sole grate was literally falling apart. I believe it was an original part of the boat (the forward half of the cockpit seats are the same construction) – which makes the grate about 38 years old. It was made out of 46 strips of teak (four are on the underside) fastened together with resorcinol glue and brass brads.

I disassembled the grate into its component pieces and removed the brads and as much of the resorcinol glue as I could.

Mortise and tenon joints were used at the corners of the frame. The mortises were very deep, leaving only about 1/8" of wood which, over time, had broken out and left voids on three of the corners that needed to be filled.

On five of the longitudinal strips, the upper part of the forward ends had broken off and needed to be replaced.

All the pieces were glued back together with epoxy (over 300 glue joints) and the assembled grate was sanded.

Finished with three coats of Cetol, it doesn’t look bad from a distance.

But child’s play compared to others’ projects.